New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-03-13
PRISONERS OF POVERTY.
WOMEN WAGE WORKERS. THEIR TRADES
AND THEIR LIVES.
XXI.
END AND BEGINNING.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL


ignorance and pre- udice and stupidity hampered
nv every condition Of birth and training power
less h. rise beyond them til obstacles removed.
the great city holds them all, and in pain and
wan; and sorrow they are one. The best things
of life ave impossible to them. What is worse.
they are unknown well es unattanable III
the real good Of life must be measured by ule
final worth Of the thing we mako or get by IT.
what worth is there for in thcmp The city
holds them oil the great, foul clty-ratlllnS
growing. smoking. stnking-a ghastly heap Oh
fermenting biicwOrls, pouring out poison al every
pore
The prosperous have no such definition nor 40
they admit that It can be true. For the poor. IL
IA the only one that can have place. We pack
Them away in tcnements crowded and foul beyond
ANYTHING known to even London, whose Bitter
Cry had less reason than ours. and we have taken
excellent care that no foot Of ground shall remain
that might mean breathing space, or free sport OF
child. or any green growing thing. Grass pushes
its way here and there. but for this army 1t Is
only something that at last they may lie under.
never upon There is no pause in the march
where as one and another drops out, the gap fills
instantly, every alley and by-way holding unend-
ing substitutes. It is not labor that prohteth.
for body and soul alike Starved. 1t is labor
In its basest, most degrading form; labor that Is
Is. It blinds the eyes, 1t steals away joy. 1t
blunis all powers, whether Of hope or faith. 1T
wrecks the body and 1t starves the soul. 1t is
was,e and only waste, nor can ii below ground or
above hold fruotifying power for any human soul.
Here then we face them. ignorant, blind, stupid.
incompetent In every fibre, and yet no count OF
such indictment alters our responsibility toward
them Rather il multiples it In always fncieas-
Ing ratio. For 1t is our own system that has
made these lives worthless and sooner or later
we must answer how it came that living in civil
ICED land they had less chance than the heather
TO whom we send our missionaries and upon whose
bccasi onal conversions we plume ourselves as If
thus the kingdom Of Heaven were made wider. Ii
1t is true that for many only little alienation Is
possible. O little more justice. little better APP
pOrtionment Of such good as they can compre-
bend ID is also true that something better Is
within the reach Of all.
How then shall we define It, and what posi-
bility Of alteration for either lives or conditions
lies before usp Nothing that can be of instant
Krowth, and here lies the chief disbursement.
since. as a people, We demand instantaneousncss.
and would have seed, flower and fruit at the
same moment. Admit patience. capacity to wait
and TO work while waiting as the first term Of the
eouation and the rest arrange themselves.
For the greater part Of social reformers CO
operation has stood as the initial and most es-
ssntial step, the fruit that could be plucked
full grown, and experience In England would
seem to have demonstrated the belief as true. II
ie tho American inability to wait that has proved
It untrue for U.s. and until very lately made fail
ure our only record but there Is deeper reason
than merely temperamental one The abolition
Of the apprentice system. brought about by the
creed Of master and men alike, has abolished
md ti.,rN For
trade. An American has been regarded as quick
Enough and keen enough to take in the essential
features Of O calling, it were, at a glance, and
apprenticeship has been taken as practically an
insulb to National Intelligence. Law has kept
pece with such conviction, and thus the door has
been shut In the face Of all learners, and f0rei n
ers have supplied our skilled worlImen and work
women. The groundwork Of any better order
lies II not In q return 30 the apprentice system.
then In q training from the beginning which viii
give 10 eye and hand the utmost power Of Which
they are capable. Industrial education is the
foundation, and until 1t has, in its broadcast and
deepest sense, become the portion Of every child
born on American soil. that child has missed its
birthlfght.
With the many who accept Il, 1t stands merely
rs On added capacity 10 make money, and If taken
In its narrowest application this is all that it
do. Were this all. it would be simply an added
impulse toward the degeneration that money max
ing for the sake Of money inevitably brings.
But at its BEST perfected as 1t has been by pa
tieut effort on the part Of few believers, 1t is far
more than this. Added power TO earn comes with
1t, but there also love Of the work itself.
such has had no place since the days when the
great guilds gave joyfully their few hours daily
to the cathedrals whose stones were laid and &C.
mented in love and hope and knowledge Of the
beauty TO come, that long ago died out Of any
work the present knows The builders had small
book knowledge. They could be talked down by
any public school child In the second or third year.
But they knew the meaning Of beauty and order
and law. and this trinity stands to-day and VIII
stand for many generation TO come as an ideal
to which we must return, till like causes work
again to Hike ends. The child who could barely
read saw beauty on every side and took In the
store of ballad and tradition that gave life to
labor. We have parted with all this wilfully.
To the Puritan all beauty that hand Of man could
create was of the devil. and thus We represent a
consecrated uglness, any departure from which is.
rven now by somo conscientious souls, regarded
with suspicion.
The Child then who can be made TO understand
that beauty and order and law are one. has
sense born In him. Life takes On new aspect
and work @ new meaning. But the fourteen
weeks per year OF education at present required
by law it stands Ia its application TO child
who must work has power To bring such
result II begins In the kindergarten. from which
the poorest child takes home, even 10 the tene-
nent-house, something strong enough, when
growth has come, TO abolish The tenement house
forever No man who works 10 these ends has
gauged possibilities wisely than Felix Adler,
whose school shows US something not yet attained
by tho many who. PARTIALLY accent no his methods
pronounce his theories dangerous and destructive
70 what must be held sacred. However this may
be. he and his band Of co-workers have proved
In seven years Of unceasing struggle against heavy
odds that y DEVELOPMENT is possible even for the
tnementhouse child. that reconstIucts the entire
view OF life, and makes possible the end for which
al industrial training Is but the preparation Ii